ANIM2501 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Chloris Gayana, Shade Tolerance, Minor League Baseball
Improved Pasture Species: Grasses 2
Tropical/Subtropical Grasses:
1. Signal Grass
Strengths
- High productivity under immense management
- Tolerant on heavy grazing
- Persists on low fertility, high Al, acid soils
- Very persistent, maintains green leaf well into seasonally dry periods
- Excellent seed production
Limitations
- Slow to establish if dormant seed is sown
- Poor compatibility with legumes
- Low tolerance of poor waterlogging
- Photosensitization in cattle sheep and goats (rare in australia)
- Can cause big head disease in horses.
2. Rhodes Grass
Strengths
- Widely adapted
- Easily established
- Early nutritive value
- High salt tolerance
- Tolerant of heavy grazing
- Good seed production
Limitations
- Short season of nutritive peak in many cultivars
- Fluffy seed difficult to sow
- Not adapted to acid, infertile soil
- Plants require high fertility to persists
- Low shade tolerance
3. Setaria
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Strengths
- Palatable
- Establishes easily from seed.
- Persists under modern grazing
- Adapted to a wide rage of soils
- Tolerant of flooding and waterlogging
- Some lines are frost tolerant
Limitations
- Heavy spring/summer seeding rapidly reduces feed quality
- High oxalate levels cause big head
- Not very drought tolerant
4. Green Panic
Strengths:
- Very leafy
- High quality feed
- High production potential
- Readily eaten by all stock
- Suited to grazing and cutting
- Drought tolerant
- Early season growth in some lines
- *grows well mixed with leukenia
Limitations
- Require fertile soils
- Intolerant of waterlogging
- Intolerant of heavy grazing
- Becomes stemmy if not cut or grazed frequently.
5. Para Grass
Strengths
- Adapted to floody, swampy areas.
- Supports moderately high levels of ruminant production
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Document Summary
Persists on low fertility, high al, acid soils. Very persistent, maintains green leaf well into seasonally dry periods. Slow to establish if dormant seed is sown. Photosensitization in cattle sheep and goats (rare in australia) Can cause big head disease in horses: rhodes grass. Short season of nutritive peak in many cultivars. Adapted to a wide rage of soils. Heavy spring/summer seeding rapidly reduces feed quality. Becomes stemmy if not cut or grazed frequently: para grass. Well adapted to heavy, sef-mulching, black clay soils. Seed shattering reduces seed harvests (and seed is expensive: creeping blue grass. Intolerant of acid soils: kikuyu grass (number one in hawaii) Responsive to good fertility (like good fertilizer) Requires fertile soils for persistence and good feed quality. Temperate grasses: rye grass (lolium perenne is perennial and multiflorum is ??) Does not withstand heavy grazing through drought.
